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Showing posts from December, 2022

Stay Connected: Why Life Only Works When You’re Connected to Jesus

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by Bart Denny Central text: John 15:1-11 If you’ve ever stepped on a LEGO in the middle of the night, you already know—they’re small, but they matter. But here’s something else about LEGO bricks that’s just as important: A LEGO brick by itself doesn’t do much. It’s not broken. It’s not defective. It looks perfectly fine sitting there on its own. But it never becomes what it was designed to be… unless it connects. And that simple truth is exactly where this message begins. Recently, our church kicked off a new sermon series titled Created to Connect with a message called Stay Connected. Using both Scripture and a familiar childhood image, he unpacked a powerful reality: Your life only works when you stay connected to Jesus. The Problem Isn’t Activity—It’s Disconnection Most of us don’t feel disconnected because we’re doing nothing. We feel disconnected because we’re doing too much… without the right connection. You can be busy. You can be productive. You can even be religious. And still...

Successful Revitalization of Small Evangelical Churches Hinges on Leadership Development

My doctoral dissertation, focused on how successful church revitalization pastors act to develop and empower next-generation leaders. A Phenomenological Study of Pastoral Leadership Development Behaviors in the Revitalization of Small Evangelical Churche s Available at https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/4002 Abstract Church revitalization has received renewed interest in the last several years. Rainer (2014) says that a congregation’s failure to develop and empower next-generation leaders is one of the leading contributors to church closure. Likewise, Clifton (2016) and Stetzer (2007) highlight the importance of developing next-generation leaders during church revitalization.  The purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand the leadership development behaviors of senior or solo pastors who successfully led revitalization in a small evangelical church. This study defined a small church as one averaging 65 or fewer in attendance at the beginning of the past...